KLANG: At a nondescript shoplot in Batu Belah, Klang, children of the most persecuted people on earth are getting a shot at a life free of the violence, fear and hunger that had become routine for their parents.

On the outside, the premises looks like it houses an ordinary Muslim school, but the children who go there are all Rohingya refugees from Rakhine, Myanmar.

The 260 children who attend the Rohingya Education Centre (REC) in Batu Belah here, are given a formal education and are taught Malay, English, Mathematics and Science in the morning.

Like their local peers, these children also go for religious classes in the evening.

The youngest in the school is six years old, while the oldest 16, but instead of grouping them based on their age, the children are taught according to their ability, Rosma Tazila, one of the centre’s full-time teachers, said.

The centre has 11 full-time teachers, all of whom have dedicated their lives to helping the refugee children get a formal education and a leg-up in life.

The school is being run by Muslim groups Wadah Pencerdasan Umat, Persatuan Jaringan Islam Global Masa Depan and the Muslim Youth Movement.

The groups work closely with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and have so far opened three centres.The Klang centre was started in 2012, and has seven classrooms.

The UN and world human rights groups consider the Rohingya the most vulnerable and persecuted community in the world.

There are about 30,000 Rohingya refugees registered with the

UNHCR, 8,000 of them children.

Although the centre lacks many of the comforts of normal schools, Rosma said her students are passionate about learning.

Besides the RECs, there is also another school for Rohingya in Pahang, which is being funded by the Al-Bukhary Foundation. — The Malaysian Insider

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on May 25, 2015.